The date was August 1st, 1981. A new cable television network hit a limited number of subscribers screens around the country to do something unheard of. Play music videos, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The network was MTV, short for “Music Television”.

The network had a limited selection of videos to start, as many artists didn’t produce music videos, but in no time, videos flooded the network. From the relatively rudimentary to the elaborate, creative and mind-bending.

Fast forward to 2022, the network seldom ever plays a music video. The second-favorite member of “Rob & Big” dominates the network with a worse version of “Tosh.0”. The network still hold the “Video Music Awards,” but we all know it’s different than it used to be. YouTube has taken over where MTV left off, but the budgets and creativity of many of the music videos you see are lacking.

Except, perhaps, for one band.

Enter OK Go.

The band’s history with creative music videos was born out of necessity. Known for creative ways to break the mold, they decided to take the music video for “Here It Goes Again” in their own hands. They rented eight treadmills, had them brought to lead singer Damian Kulash’s sister’s spare room, and they choreographed the video together.

What resulted was one of the most memorable music videos of the 2000’s, winning the Grammy for Best Music Video in 2007. The video made the song big, not the other way around.

What came of this band since? OK Go hasn’t had a bunch of radio success (which, personal opinion, is ridiculous). They shook their record label (who they had felt had been more of a hinderance than a help) and formed their own. They’ve had incredible worldwide success as a touring act and connecting one-on-one with their fans.

Their music videos have become increasingly more intricate and expensive, paid for in part by advertisers they build into the videos. From playing bottles with a car, to using printers to print to the beat of their track, to choreographing a video in simulated zero gravity… OK Go is a band that, if you haven’t seen their work, you need to pay attention to.

Scroll down and take a look at some of their best music videos of all time. Number 9 is my absolute favorite.

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• "Here It Goes Again"

  This isn’t the first music video they made, but it’s the one they are most known for. Classic, viral, and creative. All in one continuous shot.

• "This Too Shall Pass" (Marching Band Version)

  They did two music videos for this track. This one, filmed outside in a field, features the band alongside a marching band. All in one continuous shot.

• "This Too Shall Pass" (Rube Goldberg Machine Version)

  This is the video where their budgets and creativity really started to grow. Note the very quick State Farm logo on the car that kicks off the “machine” for the video. That logo inclusion paid for the production, and as you can see, when their creative side meets cash, they go for broke. All in one continuous shot.

• "End Love"

  The viewer hears the song normally, but in order to get the “sped up” and “slowed down” effect in the video, the audio they lip-synced to needed to be slowed down and sped up. A cheap but creative effect that you’ll see in later videos. Oh, and yeah, one take.

• "White Knuckles"

  What will about $500 in assorted Ikea items and some trained dogs get you? Another creative one-shot video that makes the song memorable.

• "The Muppet Show Theme Song"

  This video was many things. First of all, it’s unlike many of their prior videos. Not one-take. BUT it does pay homage to many of the prior videos up until this point, it features the Muppets, and frankly this version of the theme song kicks all kinds of ass.

• "Needing/Getting"

  Another example of sponsor money going a long way. This video, sponsored by Chevrolet, features members of the band driving a Chevy Sonic that is strapped with microphones, poles, chimes and more to allow the car to make the music along a track in a field. Again… the video makes the song. To have the imagination to even concoct this is amazing.

• "The Writing's On The Wall"

  We return to the warehouse motif of the “This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Version)”. This time the video (which we THINK is a one-take but there are a couple spots where they could have used a take-two) is filled to the brim with visual tricks to fool your mind. The sheer amount of people coming from the scene at the end show how many people it took to pull it off.

  But that was nothing compared to…

• "I Won't Let You Down"

  …this video. In collaboration with Honda which have these incredible self-leveling, rideable unicycles called the “Uni-Cub”, they took production to Japan, performed to a slowed down track to get the “sped up” look of the video, and the ending shot – all legit – will make your jaw drop at the scale of casting that took place to make it possible. Don’t believe us, they have a behind the scenes video…

   

• "Upside Down & Inside Out"

  TO SPACE! Sorta. They worked with a zero-gravity simulating plane overseas to create this incredible video. From floating choreography, to the biggest mess ever made in a plane… it’s mesmerizing. It’s one-take. And it’s all legit. To the point where at least one band member was livid with the stomach turning flights.

   

• "The One Moment"

  Getting sponsored by Morton Salt of all the companies, they turned this song into a slow motion explosion… using incredible thought and filmography to capture, well, “The One Moment”.

• "Obsession"

  A paper company sponsored them to make this video… featuring hundreds of printers, custom software to print to the beat and more. Amazing how much effort went into a production like this.

• "All Together Now"

  Well, just like everything else, COVID ruined everything. OK Go made the most of it by releasing this video, layering several videos to make a song together, apart. It’s their last official video, but we highly doubt it’s the last you’ll see of the band.

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